


The Starks Send Their Regards

by boomvroomshroom



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Smart!Robb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-11 10:26:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4431713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boomvroomshroom/pseuds/boomvroomshroom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Tywin Lannister gazes at the young man standing in front of him, his eyes as cold as the North itself, and regrets ever losing Eddard Stark if this is his replacement. "You are nothing like your father," he acknowledges, with grudging admiration.</i>
</p>
<p>  <i>"True," Robb Stark replies, a thin smile upon his face. It doesn't quite reach his eyes. "And neither are you."</i></p>
<p>In which Robb Stark plays the game just as well as he plays at war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Starks Send Their Regards

It happens like this:

The day Lord Eddard Stark is imprisoned, the Northern army mobilizes, as expected. The boy's father did the same when Lyanna Stark was kidnapped. Northerners tended to think that all political issues could be resolved by some open-field battle, as Tywin knew. He doesn't think much of Robb Stark, a green boy of fourteen, and expects him to go running back to his home at the first sight of blood with his tail between his legs.

Except nothing happens. The Northern army just sits there.

In the future Tywin will look back and regret ignoring that, but for now, Tywin doesn't care too much about the boy, really; he has more pressing matters to deal with. The Baratheon brothers – last he heard of them, Renly, the younger, had also declared himself a king, in an attempt to bypass Stannis – have now somehow reconciled their differences, and are joining forces to invade King's Landing. Renly has the might of Storm's End and Highgarden behind him; Stannis has the Dragonstone navy. They are both converging on the capital from two directions, one from the sea and the other from the South. And they are both moving  _now_.

That Stannis and Renly Baratheon managed to get everything formed up and sorted out so quickly quite surprises Tywin; large mass movements tend to take up a great deal of planning. But no matter. If he doesn't arrive in time to help King's Landing, the royal family will be dead, and the Baratheon brothers will be coming for him next.

So he is forced to leave the siege of Riverrun to Jaime – whatever, Tyrion is no longer a captive of the Tully woman anymore and he personally has done enough damage to the surrounding countryside to teach them a lesson – and head away.

He arrives in King's Landing shortly before Stannis and Renly, which is good, but also to several more instances of Cersei's incompetence, which frustrates him to no end.

First, Joffrey beheaded Eddard Stark. Cersei claims she tried to persuade Joffrey to let the man join the Night's Watch, but that doesn't matter because Eddard Stark's head is still stuck on a pike overlooking the city. If that doesn't draw the North into war, nothing will. Except that Robb Stark seems to be content playing some sort of waiting game, or, more likely, he's still young and indecisive and scared of going to battle.

More importantly, it doesn't matter whether Eddard Stark is dead or alive because now his daughters are gone, too. Missing. Disappeared from King's Landing right underneath their noses, and despite their best efforts no one knows if they are even alive.

They had three Starks to hold hostage in King's Landing, and now one is dead and the other two are gone.

Cersei and Joffrey have also done little to address the problem of the starving smallfolk, and instead have made it worse with their ostentatious displays of wealth. Due to unrest in the Riverlands, and the Reach joined with the Stormlands in revolt, very little food is coming into the capital. The upcoming siege only makes it worse. Already people are being mobbed in the streets. Tywin doesn't care about the opinion of sheep, but unlike Cersei, he does recognize the danger an unruly populace will cause. He is forced to declare martial law and curfew – unpopular, but at least the danger is shut down for now.

And finally, Renly and Stannis are arriving, and the city is preparing for siege. Luckily, Cersei is sensible enough for once to realize that she might just need Tyrion's brains – though he hates the dwarf he can accept his usefulness every now and then (more so than Cersei, anyway). Thanks to Tyrion, Stannis' fleet is destroyed with wildfire in a single, impressive, if ruthless, move, leaving only Renly's army to contend with.

King's Landing is holding up well, but the smallfolk are growing restless. Stannis is gone, so ships can come into the Blackwater from the East, at least – and if they can get food, then Renly's advantage of excess men and food from Highgarden is evened out.

Then come two ravens, one after another. Ser Stafford is dead and his force of ten thousand have been routed at Oxcross. Meanwhile, Jaime is a prisoner, defeated in an ambush of all things at Whispering Wood by none other than Robb Stark himself. The siege of Riverrun is broken, the Westerlands are under attack, and there is no way Tywin can get his men out to go back and help what remains of his desperate bannermen even if he wanted to because he is trapped. Trapped in a starving cesspool, and the first supply ship has yet to come.

…The ships aren't coming.

The Free Cities aren't sending any food. Or they are, but at ridiculous prices and in tiny amounts, and there's no way the supplies in that one boat will be enough to sustain King's Landing.

Meanwhile, Riverrun has allied with the Starks and now their positions are reversed, because instead of the Lannisters destroying the Riverlands it's the Northmen and Tullys hopping around the Westerlands, grabbing every castle in sight. They've got the backing of the Freys, too; it's part of the reason why Jaime was caught unaware, Tywin knows now. Jaime didn't know that Robb Stark had managed to cross the Green Fork.

Robb Stark fights like a child, like the child he  _is_  – all over the place. But it works for him, and he hasn't lost a battle yet, and now the only way Tywin can see to put him down while he deals with Renly is to have his own men betray him.  _Where is he going?_ Renly is still sieging King's Landing, but the Stark boy has already captured Ashemark and The Crag. The letter is a week old. He could be anywhere by now, and Tywin can't do a thing to help. All of the troops in the Riverlands have been defeated and Tywin's troops are caged in here. It will be up to his bannermen to fight those battles, not that they're doing a very good job at it, and it will be up to him to get rid of Robb Stark -

…Lannisport has fallen; the Northmen snuck in at night and scuttled all the ships in the harbor.  _Casterly Rock._  They're headed to Casterly Rock. His luck is going from bad to worse. Robb Stark never intended to head to the capital of the Seven Kingdoms. King Joffrey beheaded Eddard Stark and the Lannisters are the only ones holding up the crown right now. His enemy is the Lannisters; he's headed to  _their_ capital.

But he's not headed to Casterly Rock. He destroyed the ships at Lannisport, in almost the same way the Greyjoys did during the last war, and now – now he's gone. He's moving south. If he joins Renly it's all over. Robb Stark has to die. If he dies, the Northern army will fall apart, and that's on threat over with.

Except it doesn't work that way. Shortly after he receives another raven. Roose Bolton has been executed for trying to flay a prisoner, and also for receiving letters from the Lannisters in secret. Tywin had hoped that if Bolton was caught and executed, Robb Stark might at least lose some men, but logically he knows that it will not work. Roose Bolton is not missed among the rest; the Boltons have few numbers and his own men didn't like him anyway. The rest of the Northerners are staunchly honor-bound and loyal to the memory of Eddard Stark, and the only other possible turncoats in the Northern army – the Freys – have been promised a wedding to a Great House, something Tywin cannot give them. He'd have promised them title over the entire Riverlands or the North, except Robb Stark has already taken care to send the Tullys home to repair their damaged lands and get in one last harvest before winter, and the North would never accept men from below the Neck as their leaders.

The real question is, how Robb Stark found out about the plot in the first place. Tywin had taken extreme care not to let anything slip.

…Why aren't any ships coming?

It's soon clear. Turns out the attack on Lannisport was a distraction. During the attack some of Robb Stark's men snuck into Casterly Rock through the sewers – led straight from the castle to the ocean, thanks to Tyrion – and took it over from the inside; it takes him until now to get the message because they killed all the ravens for King's Landing as soon as they breached the walls. Casterly Rock hasn't fallen since it was built – and now – now it has, to a boy of fourteen? Fifteen? He can't remember. They don't stay in Casterly Rock to occupy it, though. Kevan tells him, later, that they didn't loot or steal. Robb Stark just locked him in his own room and had some people guard the door while the Northmen went on a raid of the various offices and solars. It had taken Kevan a while to realize what was missing, what the Stark boy took, what they were after, since they tossed all of Tywin's carefully  _painstakingly_ organized papers everywhere (did that boy  _know_  how long it took him to put all that parchment in order, the little savage?) –

They took the financial statements of Casterly Rock. The ones detailing the states of the dried-up gold mines. 

Robb Stark stole his financial statements and used them to forge a note to the Iron Bank to imply that the current holders of the Iron Throne are about to default on their massive debt. The Iron Bank is now funding the Baratheon-Tyrell alliance, not the Lannisters.

And someone has been manipulating the Essosi market because even if the Iron Bank didn't exist, food shouldn't be this expensive or scarce. He asks Petyr Baelish if he knows what's going on, and though Baelish knows  _how_ someone might do such a thing, theoretically (something involving tariffs and short-selling and double repurchasing), he doesn't know anyone in Westeros capable of bridging the distance, language, and racial barriers to accomplish such a feat, and on such a widespread scale, too. Baelish's economic and informational network doesn't extend so far. Varys he knows has spies in Essos, but not so much economic power.

News from Essos. The Iron Bank isn't  _just_ funding the Baratheon-Tyrell alliance. They're also funding the North, under Robb Stark. Or rather, giving him information. Robb Stark traded them the finances of Casterly Rock for some other reports (which ones he doesn't know – only that they're now in the boy's hands), because if there's one thing the Starks are smart about it's not to borrow anything from the Iron Bank.

He wasn't aware the North had their hands in so many pots.

And just like that, the war is over. The starving smallfolk finally revolt when Renly orders his men to start catapulting bread over the walls. In their attempts to grab at the food the peasants physically tear his already weakening men apart, and open the doors to Renly themselves. Robb Stark and the North arrive just as this is happening, and gain the dignity of helping Renly – King Renly, now – capture King's Landing, though they lose no men themselves in the process.

Cersei and her children are all hiding somewhere; it falls to Tywin to greet them. Tywin knows he will die now. But better Renly than Stannis, who he hears gave men to some red priestess to burn alive.

"I wasn't so sure at first, but now I'm glad you convinced me to ally with Stannis," he hears Renly say.

And to his not-surprise-anymore, it's Robb Stark who answers. "Yes, imagine if you had declared yourself as King, too. You, Stannis, and the Lannisters; it'd be a three-front war, with all of you fighting two-front battles."

"But you were raiding the Westerlands anyway," Renly says.

Robb Stark shrugs. "The Lannisters beheaded my father, not you."

Renly turns to him. "So now we go look for your sisters?"

Robb Stark yawns. "What? Oh, no. They're already back in Winterfell. I sent some trustworthy men and bribed some untrustworthy ones to smuggle them out as soon as we got news of my father's arrest all those months ago. Funny what a haircut and a push in the mud can do to throw off those idiot Gold Cloaks."

"Wait – so they're  _not_ in King's Landing?" Renly asks.

"Oh, you didn't know?" The boy shrugs and looks at Tywin. "I guess you Lannisters did a pretty good job of hiding that blunder from the general public."

It doesn't take an idiot to figure the rest out, and Tywin is no idiot. If his personal network extends far south enough that he can sneak his sisters out of King's Landing and back up North without getting caught – ultimately much more effective than storming the walls and hoping that they were still alive by the end – then being the neutral third agent in brokering an agreement between Dragonstone and Storm's End would have been little trouble. And he was manipulative enough to send those letters to Braavos. "I suppose you were the one hiking up the prices in Essos, too?"

Robb Stark only gives him a little smirk, and Renly suddenly looks at his ally more warily. "Varys isn't the only one with little birds."

Joffrey is being dragged out of his room by some Northern soldiers. He's screaming and crying and pleading for his life like a coward, and Tywin can't help but roll his eyes. Rightful king or not, because he refuses to believe Stannis Baratheon's lies, the boy has no self-control, and no idea how to conduct himself properly. He is about to die, and as no begging will save him, he might as well carry himself with some dignity, but he's too stupid to realize that.

Tommen and Myrcella are to be taken to Winterfell as hostages. Joffrey isn't so lucky. Neither are Jaime and Cersei, who are to be executed for their "crimes", because even though it's a lie ( _a lie_ , Tywin thinks desperately), the victors write history. Lancel is also to be executed, for his part in assisting in the murder of King Robert. Baelish was going to be beheaded as well, for "betraying Eddard Stark" (now  _that_ was just grasping at straws, Tywin felt, but revenge is revenge), but he was killed instead in an escape attempt and so there will be no public death.

It's an insult to Tywin as well as insurance for Renly, because now that his two older children are dead, it is Tyrion who will inherit Casterly Rock, and of course Kevan won't try to take that away from him because for some reason all of Tywin's siblings actually  _like_ their nephew. Even if he did, Kevan is aging, and all of his sons – Lancel to be beheaded, and Martyn and Willem killed in some battle against the Young Wolf – are dead. With Tygett dead of the pox and Gerion never returned from Essos, Tyrion will be the only Lannister male left from the main line.

They tell Tywin he is going to be beheaded, too. For a list of crimes he did and didn't commit, plus some he personally doesn't regard as a crime but they do. Really, it's because he's too dangerous to leave alive.

Everything just fell into place so conveniently for Renly Baratheon and Robb Stark.

…Morning. The Sept of Baelor. Where Eddard Stark was killed. Of course they'd do that.

Robb Stark receives the honors of doing the actual killing, because he's a Stark and "he who passes the sentence swings the sword". It's a slow process, since he insists on wiping off his blade after every execution, but Tywin supposes it's a small comfort, since he's the last in line and he'd rather he die of a clean stroke than one already dripping with the blood of other men.

Lancel goes first and then Jaime goes second and then Cersei, and though Tywin isn't an emotional man, it hurts to watch anyway.

_I failed you, Joanna. I'm sorry._

And then it's Joffrey. Joffrey, the King. Tywin supposes he should feel a little bit flattered – they're doing this beheading from least to most important, squire and knight and then Queen Mother and then King, and yet they're beheading the King before him, the Hand. Even if Joffrey was no true King.

Before he knows it, it's his turn, and he's standing on the steps of the Sept of Baelor, before the jeering crowd. But Tywin doesn't care for the opinions of sheep. Instead, he holds Robb Stark's gaze until the very end. The boy is staring down at him, his sword shining clean.

"Any last words?" Robb Stark asks him.

He's standing, tall and proud, but not regally, as some honorable lord might. Rather, it's the haunted look of a boy who had to grow up too fast, who had to do things he normally would not do because situation dictated he save his own life and that of his family. It's interesting to see this look on one of Eddard Stark's sons – one that doesn't allow mercy to shine through, but rather, one that says, quite clearly and plainly –  _Try to do to me what you did to my father and you will end up_ like _my father._

Tywin Lannister gazes at the young man standing in front of him, his eyes as cold as the North itself, and regrets ever losing Eddard Stark if this is his replacement. "You are nothing like your father," he acknowledges, with grudging admiration.

"True," Robb Stark replies, a thin smile upon his face. It doesn't quite reach his eyes. "And neither are you."

Then the steel of the sword sings through the air, and right before it lands on his neck, he hears the boy whisper,  _"The Starks send their regards."_

Tywin does not kneel, or bow. He dies standing. Robb Stark allows him this.


End file.
